A Rat’s Guilty Conscience
by thinkingcap101
Summary: Set after DOM. Peter has enough when he hears of the Dark Lord's plan to send a death eater back in time to make sure Remus never graduates Hogwarts. Teaming up with Harry, they go back to the Marauder era to save him. Problem? They've only got a week.


**Hello to everyone who have decided to read this. This is my first fan fic ever so if you don't like to read newbie stuff, click the back arrow button on your computer and forget you have ever come across this. To those that don't plan on doing that and giving this a chance, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: My creative instincts and imagination are no where near comparible to that of the wonderful J.K. Rowling so there is no way I could have written, publish, and own Harry Potter.**

Chapter One

Voldemort's Plan

If one were to inspect Riddle Manor closely, one would notice that there were many mouse holes formed into its walls. Although there were no living mice in the manor. Oh no, Nagini made sure of that. The Death Eaters were used to her slithering all over the property, prying her eyes into everyone's activities while at the same time hunting down any mice that would be unfortunate enough become her dinner.

But right now Nagini was at this moment not hunting for mice but for a rat. A certain rat animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew. This was both a task and a favorite pastime for the snake that served the Dark Lord Voldemort. It was a task because the Dark Lord had ordered her to find the missing death eater for him as he was about to start a meeting and had required that _all_of his death eaters, even his spies, to be present and no matter how many times he summoned Pettigrew, the rat wouldn't show up. So he sent his snake, who loved to hunt the rat herself and scare him out of his wits by trying to "eat" him. She always spit him out in the end.

Nagini stopped in her slithering and flicked her tongue out into the air that surrounded the now old and moldy kitchen of the house. The rat was near by. He had a distinct scent that made him different from the other death eaters. Probably because he was a rat and Nagini always had a strong sense of smell when it came to rodents, her favorite meal. The same happened to everyone else who was an animegus. The scent of their animal forms made it easier for her to find them and pick them out.

Using her muscles, she slithered across the black and faded white tiles of the kitchen floor to the wall that lined the stove. There, on the bottom of the wall nearly hidden by the legs of the antique stove was a mouse hole. She flicked her tongue again. Yep, the rat was in there doing what god knows what. Moving quietly she slowly positioned her head inside and opened her mouth.

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Peter Pettigrew, currently in his rat form, was lying curled up in one of his favorite mouse holes. He really was glad that the house had them. It provided him with a private place in which he could collect his thoughts as he was the only rat animagus within the network of death eaters. Instead right now he was crying. Peter couldn't remember the last time he had cried. He supposed it was back when he attended Hogwarts, but he didn't remember much of the details.

Hogwarts. How he wished he could go back to those times. Back to when things were simpler to deal with. Back to when he had friends and were part of the Marauders. Yes. Though he usually just hung around with them, he really did have fun and playing pranks on the Snivellus with Prongs, Padfoot, and Mooney. At the thought of Prongs and Padfoot Peter cried even harder. It had been that very night he had found out of Padfoot's death after the death eaters returned from the department of mysteries. As soon as Bellatrix, Peter clenched his teeth as he thought of her, told him of his once at a time friend's death and that she herself had killed him, Peter rushed out of the room.

"It's my entire fault." Peter thought, crying some more. "It's my fault that Prongs and Lily died. It's my fault that Padfoot died. Why did I betray my friends to the Dark Lord? Why didn't I warn Harry about Voldemort prying into his mind and sending false images? I knew what would happen them. Why didn't _I DO SOMETHING_!!!?" Peter wailed in a bunch of squeaks. "Because you didn't want to get killed." A little voice inside Peter told him. "Because you didn't want to die. All you have done was done so that you would live another day at the expense of others. You were afraid to die while your friends weren't. Face it, you're a coward."

Again he felt a stinging sensation in his left arm. He held it up to peer at it. Even in rat form, the mark was still there, faintly etched into his skin but it was still there. It was a wonder that Percy, or any of the other Weasley children for that matter, had never noticed it. The Dark Lord was calling him again. Peter sighed. He really should have answered on the first call. Now he would likely be punished.

Peter started to back out of the mouse hole, only to slightly graze his foot on a set of very sharp teeth. Peter gulped. He slowly turned his head and froze while his breath hitched. There was Nagini…with her mouth wide open…and his body half way into it. They stayed like that for a few seconds, before Peter quickly scrambled out of the way before Nagini smashed her mouth shut. If snakes could laugh, Nagini would be doing so. Peter scowled and crawled out of the hole, changed back to his human self, and made his way to the meeting room.

As soon as he stepped on foot into the meeting, he heard the words "Crucio!" uttered by his master. Pain shot through Peter tearing him apart and forcing him to his knees. "You are late Wormtail." The dark lord said in a dark, ominous tone.

"Forgive me master." Pettigrew rasped as he stood up shaking. "I was too occupied to notice that you were callin-"

"CRUCIO!"

Again Peter succumbed to the pain and dropped to the floor. "YOU ARE TO NEVER IGNORE MY SUMMONING OF YOU EVER AGAIN! ALL OF YOU!" the dark lord yelled. After a few more minutes of watching Peter withering in pain, Voldemort waved his wand and the curse was removed. "Go stand with the others." He snapped. Peter hastily nodded and stood behind the death eaters that were already there. Nagini had already, by this time, rejoined her master. They all watched as she slid up the chair and curled her self around her master's arm contently but rigid enough so that she could strike any one in a second.

"My lord," Lucius asked, "why have you summoned us all here. We all only know that you do this when you have planned something of great importance to our cause."

"Yes Lucius, you are correct." Lord Voldemort hissed. He started to stroke Nagini's head with his white bony hand. It reminded Peter of one time when he, Padfoot, Mooney, and Prongs, were over at Lily's house once shortly after graduation. They were watching something Lily called a movie on a device that she called a T.V. Peter couldn't remember much of what it was about only that the villain was dressed in a suit with an eyeglass on one of his eyes and that he was always petting a white cat in his arms while laughing like a maniac. Voldemort's petting of Nagini would outrival that performance.

"As you all know, thanks to one of my most loyal death eaters Bellatrix Lestrange," Voldemort nodded at Bellatrix who smiled one of her seductive yet evil and crazy smiles, "the blood traitor Black has been killed." The death eaters nodded at this. "Yes," the dark lord continued "one person again, out of the way of our quest. However, another still stands, one of a greater threat…Remus Lupin." Peter perked up at this. It seemed that the dark lord had a secret agenda of ridding the world of the Marauders Peter had thought at times. He just hoped he wasn't on the list despite the fact that he was in the group himself.

"Moony." Peter thought. "What does the dark lord want with-" Peter's thoughts were interrupted by the dark lord.

"Lupin," the dark lord hissed, "has been a pest in many of my plans. He has managed to gain the allegiance of some of the werewolves and thanks to him, the blood traitor and _James and Lily Potter_," he snapped, "had ruined many of my best plans!"

Peter inwardly chuckled at this. Yes, his friends had ruined many of the dark lord's plans before Harry was born. The part most people did not know was that it was all thanks to Remus. Yes he was mostly the background guy when it came to missions but if it weren't for his research in spells, creatures, and objects that the dark lord had had in his possession, James, Lily, and Sirius probably wouldn't have survived him long enough.

"Because of this," the dark lord continued, "and to further weaken Harry Potter, I will send one of you back in time to make sure that very horrible excuse of a werewolf will never make it past his days as a Hogwarts student!" There was silence. If Nagini wasn't as skilled as a hunter as she was, Peter would have sworn that crickets would have singed at this time. Time travel was a serious business. One wrong move and the whole time line could be messed up with nothing to fix it. Peter knew that the Dark Lord must be desperate to use time travel. Even his master wasn't as stupid as to use it without considering the consequences.

"Also," Voldemort started again, "once Lupin has been finished off, the person that has been sent back will guide my past self to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes as I have done in the past that greatly lessened my power." At this, the death eaters all knew that Voldemort wanted the said death eater to make sure that the fiasco that made Harry the boy-who-lived, never happen. With a wave of his hand, Voldemort said, "Dismissed."

Peter was the first one out of there. He was shaking. Again, he had been handed information that would cause another one…no… the last one of his friends' death. And Moony had been a special friend to him. He was the one that really stood up for him. A tear traveled down his plump cheek and landed on the floor. "You are a coward." He thought again. Pettigrew now looked at his mark in disgust. "My friends' deaths just so I could survive. I really am a rat." Peter went into what used to be the living room and sat down on the hard sofa. He knew he wasn't the death eater that would be sent back. Voldemort would have called him by now if he was. Peter sighed, and then clenched both his fists and teeth. "I can't warn Moony. He wouldn't believe me! None of them will! I've done too much to destroy their trust." He thought. "The instant I arrive at the Order's headquarters will mean instant death for me! But I can't let him die. I won't be the last marauder!" For a few minutes he just sat there, the life not showing in his eyes.

"That's it!" Peter mentally shouted. "If I can't warn them, I'll just have to save Moony myself. Yes. I'll do just that!" Peter stood up and went to get his cloak from his room, a plan forming in his mind. "Yes. I'll go back in time as well and I'll protect Moony until I can find out who was sent to get rid of him." Peter chuckled. He entered his room, which was really the very small attack that held a cot and a box of his possessions. Peter grabbed his black cloak and tied it around him. He then bent down to his cardboard box and rummaged about. He soon found what he was looking for. Peter's uncle had left him a few things in his will when he died shortly after Peter got sworn in as a death eater. He was a collector of magical items, and besides the small sum of money that Peter had inherited, he had also inherited a time turner.

Pettigrew opened the small case that he had held the turner in. He lifted it up with glee in his eyes. He would finally be making up for all he had done! The glee in his face though left quickly as he noticed something about the turner. It was cracked in the hourglass. It wasn't big but it wasn't small either, and he was positive it wasn't there when he inherited it. His mind racked his memories for what could have caused it. Then he remembered and growled. Nagini, in her fun, had startled Pettigrew in his sleep a week ago which caused him to nock over his box with all his things spilling out. That must have been when the crack was formed.

"Damn!" Peter spat. Yet another thing to hate the snake for. He was really starting to feel that he should kill that snake. Yes, kill it and then roast it on a spit. Though a crack didn't stop the turner from working, it did change it all the less. Any turner with a crack would only let the person to stay in the past for a number of days. With each day in the past, the crack would get bigger and bigger, until the hour glass broke completely and the person was sent straight back to their time. Judging by the size of the crack on the hourglass, Peter estimated that if he used it, he would only have seven days. One week to find out who the death eater was that was sent to kill Moony and remove him.

Time turners were expensive, and Peter did not have enough money to buy one, the only ones that were given out for free where to aurors that worked at the ministry, and he most certainly did not have the guts to ask the dark lord for one. Though Peter was a death eater, he learned early on that he was not trusted completely. So that left him with the only choice of using what he had.

"Seven days." Peter thought. "I would be able to figure out who the death eater is but not in seven days. No it would take me much longer then that. I will have to get help." Peter racked his brain for death eaters that might help but he quickly buried the thought. Yeah right, who would honestly put up with him to go back in time and stop their lord's plan. He then went to those in the order but also buried the thought. The order knew he was alive, and that he was the real traitor, not Sirius. Plus the magic surrounding his mark would immediately sound of the wards around headquarters if he ever tried to go near it. If he needed help, he needed someone who wasn't a death eater and someone who wasn't part of the order yet someone who was also a friend of Remus. That was the main thing. Peter knew that there were people on the light side that wouldn't risk their lives for a werewolf.

So he started to think of friends of Remus. Sirius was definitely out. He tried to _kill _him during Harry's third year and will most likely do it again the second Peter was in his sight. The same went with Mooney plus Peter was scared of him shit less. Tonks might listen then again she might not and Peter was not about to go to Albus unless he wanted to dark lord to know and Peter knew the dark lord would know.

So again he went through his thoughts of people when he came upon Harry. He did stop Sirius and Remus from killing him, and Peter knew he would do anything for them. That was why he went to the Department of Mysteries in the first place right? To "rescue" Sirius even though it might have been a trap? But there was always the possibility that Harry would not believe him. "I wouldn't blame him." Peter thought. "I'm the reason why his parents are dead…and I did steal his blood to bring Voldemort back last year..." He went through other possible people that would help but he always came back to Harry. It seemed the raven haired boy was the only person that would actually help Peter without trying to kill him, or at least not without an explanation. Peter looked at an old clock that was stored in the attic. "Damn it! There's no time!" Peter took a breath. "Well," he thought smiling, "either way I basically dead eventually." And with that, he disappeared from the manor with a pop.

**Like it? Love it? Hate it? Please review!!! It would really make me happy if people took the time to review this even if they just write one saying that this is the worst fan fic they have ever read. I'm not going to be one of those writers that will ask you to review kindly. You can do that if you want but speaking from experiance from school and friends that have read my stuff allready, its the harsh reviews that point out all the things that I could make better that really help me improve. Thanks! : )**


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